On Nov. 13, 2025, a claim gained traction online that Immigration and Customs Enforcement attempted to deport a 24-year-old Native American woman named Leticia Jacobo.
The claim spread across multiple platforms (archived, archived, archived), and dozens of people searched the Snopes site for answers.
The claim that ICE attempted to deport Jacobo was true, though authorities in Iowa said it was a “clerical error.” The claim stemmed from a Nov. 12 story (archived) in the Arizona Mirror that detailed how Jacobo’s mother, Ericka Burns, drove to the Iowa jail where Jacobo had been for a month. She went the day before Jacobo was scheduled for release, looking to verify pickup details. When she got there, jail staff told Burns that they were going to be turning Jacobo over to ICE agents upon her release.
Burns and her sisters mobilized their family and connected with local tribal leaders; Burns stayed on site in case ICE came for her daughter, who Polk County authorities released just before 4:30 a.m. Nov. 12.
According to Jacobo’s aunt Maria Nunez, Jacobo — who was born in Arizona and a member of Arizona’s Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community — had her tribal identification with her and the immigration detainer was issued for Jacobo a week prior, on Nov. 4, the Mirror reported.
We reached out to the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and ICE, seeking further details and comment. We will update this story if we receive a response.
How do we know this event took place?
We looked for primary evidence of the events as described in the Arizona Mirror story — such as testimony from officials, documented proof Jacobo was held at the jail and social media posts from family members calling for her release — and found key details that confirmed the facts of the story.
First, the Iowa authorities themselves acknowledged that officers made a “clerical mistake.” We spoke with the spokesperson for Polk County Sheriff’s Office, Mark Chance, who said that while it was true the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, issued a detainer for Jacobo, there was a different person with the same last name detained at the jail that Polk County officers mixed up in a “clerical error.”
The Polk County Jail database listed Jacobo’s booking as well as that of another woman with the same last name in its online database. We were unable to confirm this was the person Chance referred to because he said the department did not release the full name of that person as it was a safety concern to release the information of a federal detainee. We followed up with him and will update this story if we receive a response.
The Mirror also reported that Jacobo’s family mobilized on social media, calling for her release, and we found some examples of these posts on Nunez’s Facebook page (archived):
Nunez accused Polk County officials of racial discrimination and posted on Facebook that Jacobo would be filing a lawsuit.
“I do want to say that it’s racial profiling because she’s been there before, they have a rap sheet on her — why would they make a mistake with someone that’s constantly coming in?” Nunez told the Mirror.
Jacobo’s history of bookings at the Polk County jail is consistent with the claim that it was not the first time Jacobo was booked at the jail.
(polkinmates.polkcountyiowa.gov)
What details have officials denied?
Polk County authorities disputed at least two aspects of the Mirror’s story.
First, the sheriff’s office said it released Jacobo on her scheduled release date of Nov. 12. Jacobo’s family said she was actually scheduled to be released on Nov. 11, “but what should have been a routine process was complicated and delayed by an erroneously issued ICE detainer.”
Chance also denied the Mirror’s claim that the Polk County Jail had a 287(g) agreement with ICE; rather, he said the department operated under an Intergovernmental Agreement. An Intergovernmental Agreement means the jail has a contract that allows it to rent 45 to 50 jail beds to ICE, according to Chance, but does not delegate immigration enforcement powers. On the other hand, a 287(g) agreement gives jails some level of authority to run immigration status checks, prepare removal paperwork and other tasks.
In sum …
Jacobo’s family’s account that an ICE detainer was erroneously issued for Jacobo is accurate; the Polk County Sheriff’s Office claimed it made a “clerical mistake.” We also found posts from a family member calling for her release during a timeframe consistent with her family’s account, and Jacobo’s profile was publicly available on the Polk County Jail database.
